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Field Season on Film

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Green Mountain Club

Field season on film

This article was written by assistant trail crew lead Jivana Esposito and appeared first in the Fall 2025 Long Trail News.

As I dive deeper into the trail world, I find myself extremely inspired by archival pictures of trail crews in the early 20th century, when film photography was just evolving. Photos of crews cutting trail bench into sheer hillsides, using historic power carriers and pneumatic jackhammers, and creating camp communities, which inspired how we live in the field now.

Trail work is not a very well-known profession. Many people have a very limited understanding of what our job entails or do not take it very seriously. But what most fail to realize is that trail work is one of the oldest trades in history. That’s why documentation is so important in this field of work.

Long before there was standardized and recreational trail building, indigenous people built trail networks to establish their communities and for ceremonial purposes. The first recreational trails aimed at tourists developed in the 1850s in California and the Northeast. Being a part of the evolution of trail design means being part of a rich and long history of good craftsmanship that can endure generations. It feels important to document my trail crew’s experience to be able to show our families, friends, and others that we did historic work while building community and strengthening our will.

But the documentation is also an effort to show trail work as a legitimate profession that requires physically demanding labor in rustic, often-isolating settings, and in inescapable weather conditions. We are a part of something special that has gone on long before us and will continue long after us. I think capturing the season on film is just a small way we can hold onto the memories we’ve created together.

Field season on film
Trail crew members use rockbars, pick mattocks, and other hand tools while working on a project near the Long Trail’s southern terminus.

Field season on film
Trail crew member Rio Hammond rests against a large boulder near one of the crew’s project sites on the southern Long Trail.

Field season on film
Font to back: GMC professional trail crew leads Jivana Esposito, Molly Belvo, and Owen Maille pose during a pre-season project, where they honed some of their trail skills before meeting their crews.

“Early in the season when we experienced days of torrential downpour, we named our camp Sun Dome, based off a short dystopian story where people living on Mars experience rain all day, every day, and have to walk thousands and thousands of miles to reach a “Sun Dome” to experience sunlight.”

Trail crew member Rio Hammond holds up slices of watermelon during a mid-day break, delivered to the crew by a GMC section volunteer.

“Trail crew member Lily Nylund naps in a borrow pit at our project site. Borrow pits are a trail construction technique where inorganic mineral soil is sourced from the surrounding area to use as fill for the trail, providing better structural support than organic soil.”

“Our crew takes turns cooking for each other, with designated days to cook or clean dishes. Our kitchen experience always feels like a collaborative effort and we make sure we meet everyone’s dietary needs and restrictions.”

Trail crew lead Owen Maille puts finishing touches on the crew’s large relocation project in southern Vermont. “He was the visionary behind this project and taught our crew a lot of tips and tricks on quality trail building.”

“We are really proud of the work we’ve done. Within one big project, we all had our individual projects and honed our trail building skills over the course of many long, hard days.”

Jivana Esposito was the assistant trail crew lead for GMC’s southern Long Trail Patrol crew during the 2025 field season. She previously completed the AmeriCorps Backcountry Trails Program in California and was a wildland firefighter in Oregon.

The crew spent 10 weeks on the Long Trail/Appalachian Trail south of Risky Ranch Road, installing trail hardening structures and reroutes to alleviate the perpetual muddiness of the trail there.